NEA Awards $1.7 Million in Grants to Bay Area Organizations

Claudio Roncoli a recipient of an award from the National Endowment for the Arts works in his studio space at the Bakehouse Art Complex on March 16, 2017 in Miami, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced Wednesday the awarding of $5.2 million in grants to arts organizations in California, with $1,668,500 of that funding specifically earmarked for Bay Area groups.

In total, the NEA is awarding $81.76 million in grants to 1,071 recipients across the nation. This year, 144 of those winners are in California, and about 60 are in the Bay Area. Among the notable local awardees are the Filipino-American Development Foundation (FADF), which will receive $100,000 for developing a Pilipinas Cultural District in San Francisco's SOMA neighborhood; and Youth Speaks, Inc., which will receive $100,000 for a spoken-word performance called The Bigger Picture.

Noticeably absent from the list of recipients is the SF Mime Troupe. The Tony Award-winning political theater group learned in November of last year that it lost its federal funding following negative coverage from the Alt-Right news site, Breitbart. Before then, the troupe had received NEA grants ranging from $15,000-$50,000 almost every year since 1998, which it used for its summer programs.

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The California Arts Council, the state agency supporting the arts, will receive $1,155,300 for its work.

Since Congress established the independent federal agency in 1965, the NEA has awarded more than $5 billion in grants for various arts-related projects.

Below is a list of this year's grant recipients in the Bay Area. It should be noted that some of these grant amounts could change.

826 National
$10,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Literature
To support 826 Digital, an online platform for educators.

Abada-Capoeira San Francisco
$15,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Arts Education
To support a capoeira residency and performance program for students in San Francisco-area schools.

Alonzo King LINES Ballet
$20,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Dance
To support the creation and world premiere of a ballet by Alonzo King, in collaboration with the Kronos Quartet.

Bay Area Video Coalition, Inc. (aka BAVC)
$90,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Media Arts
To support the program staff, travel, lodging and honoraria expenses associated with the National MediaMaker Fellows Program, dedicated to fostering the careers of nonfiction media artists.

Center for Asian American Media (aka CAAM)
$26,500 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Media Arts
To support the strengthening and development of a peer network and strategic infrastructure for Asian American documentary filmmakers working in the American South.

City and County of San Francisco, California (on behalf of WritersCorps)
$30,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Arts Education
To support San Francisco WritersCorps, a creative writing program focused on youth from underserved communities.

Filipino-American Development Foundation
$100,000 San Francisco, CA
Our Town — Design
To support public art planning and initial project development for the SOMA Pilipinas Cultural District.

Fresh Meat Productions
$20,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Dance
To support engagement activities during a national tour of "Boys in Trouble," by choreographer Sean Dorsey.

Global Fund For Women Inc.
$20,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Media Arts
To support production, post-production, and outreach for a short documentary film series directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.

Independent Television Service, Inc. (aka ITVS)
$50,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Media Arts
To support the selection, acquisition, packaging, and promotion of films for the public television series "Independent Lens."

Jess Curtis/Gravity, Inc.
$10,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Dance
To support artist fees for the creation and presentation of a new dance work by choreographer Jess Curtis about sight and perception.

Joe Goode Performance Group
$10,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Dance
To support the creation and presentation of a new dance work about safe havens, by choreographer Joe Goode.

Kitchen Sisters Productions (aka The Kitchen Sisters)
$15,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Media Arts
To support the production of "The Keepers," a podcast and multimedia series.

Kronos Performing Arts Association (aka Kronos Quartet)
$15,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Media Arts
To support Kronos Quartet's development and implementation of free online resources for music education.

Kronos Performing Arts Association (aka Kronos Quartet)
$45,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Music
To support Fifty for the Future, a commissioning and education project by Kronos Quartet.

Margaret Jenkins Dance Studio, Inc. (aka Margaret Jenkins Dance Company)
$15,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Dance
To support the creation of Forty-Five Years, a new work by Margaret Jenkins.

MEDIATE Art Group (aka Soundwave)
$20,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works To support the Soundwave Biennial.

Merola Opera Program
$35,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Opera
To support a professional training program for singers, apprentice coaches, and an apprentice stage director.

Museum of Performance & Design (aka Museum of Performance + Design)
$15,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Theater
To support the digitization of videotapes of live theater performances documenting theater in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1976 to 2001.

San Francisco Arts Education Project (aka SFArtsED)
$35,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Visual Arts
To support an exhibition "The Living Legacy of Ruth Asawa (1926-2013): Artist, Educator, Activist."

San Francisco Ballet Association (aka San Francisco Ballet)
$50,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Dance
To support the creation and presentation of new ballets and a company premiere.

San Francisco Chanticleer, Inc. (aka Chanticleer)
$55,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Music
To support Chanticleer's national concert tour and residency program.

San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (aka SFCMP)
$15,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Music
To support "Stranger in a Strange Land," a weekend of music events showcasing the performance of a new work by composer Michael Gordon inspired by Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay.

San Francisco Dance Film Festival Inc (aka SFDFF)
$25,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Dance
To support the San Francisco Dance Film Festival.

San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music
$12,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Music
To support the annual SFMusic Day of chamber music performances.

San Francisco Performances, Inc.
$21,500 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Music
To support a music performance presenting project.

San Francisco State University (aka SFSU)
$10,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Literature
To support The Poetry Center's reading series.

SEW Productions, Inc. (aka Lorraine Hansberry Theatre)
$15,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Theater
To support the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre's production of "Unintended Consequences: The Final Days of Negro- Ville," by Keith Josef Adkins.

Shakespeare - San Francisco (aka San Francisco Shakespeare Festival)
$10,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Theater
To support the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival's Free Shakespeare in the Park production of "As You Like It."

Smuin Ballets-SF (aka Smuin Ballet)
$10,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Dance
To support the presentation of dance works as part of the company's 25th anniversary season.

Theatre Bay Area (aka TBA)
$25,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Theater
To support a new Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) training program for a cohort of Bay Area theaters.

Trust for Public Land (aka TPL)
$25,000 San Francisco, CA
Research: Art Works — Research
To support a national study that examines how parks are integrating the arts as strategies to strengthen communities.

Trust for Public Land (aka TPL)
$75,000 San Francisco, CA
Our Town — Design
To support the development of a creative placemaking toolkit for city and county health agencies, a Knowledge Building project.

Trust for Public Land (aka TPL)
$75,000 San Francisco, CA
Our Town — Design
To support performing arts workshops and a community design process for improving parks and open spaces in Camden, New Jersey.

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (aka YBCA)
$45,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support a series of exhibitions, performances, and films.

Youth Speaks, Inc.
$100,000 San Francisco, CA
Creativity Connects — Creativity Connects
To support The Bigger Picture, a spoken word performance program presented in partnership with the University of California San Francisco Center for Vulnerable Populations.

Youth Speaks, Inc.
$25,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works — Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support the Brave New Voices Festival.

Berkeley Society for the Preservation of Traditional Music, Inc. (aka Freight & Salvage)
$15,000 Berkeley, CA
Art Works — Music
To support The Freight & Salvage: Playing with Tradition music festival.

Berkeley Symphony Orchestra (aka Berkeley Symphony)
$20,000 Berkeley, CA
Art Works — Music
To support the Music in the Schools initiative.

National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo)
$20,000 Berkeley, CA
Art Works — Literature
To support a redesign of the National Novel Writing Month website.

Regents of the University of California at Berkeley (on behalf of Cal Performances)
$35,000 Berkeley, CA
Art Works — Music
To support an artist-in-residence project by the London-based Philharmonia Orchestra at Cal Performances.

Crosspulse
$10,000 Oakland, CA
Art Works — Dance
To support the development, creation, and production of a multigenerational, collaborative Body Music performance and interactive production, PASS IT DOWN.

Dimensions Dance Theater, Inc.
$25,000 Oakland, CA
Art Works — Dance
To support the Rites of Passage dance education program for youth.

Friends of Peralta Hacienda Historical Park (aka Peralta Hacienda)
$56,000 Oakland, CA
Creativity Connects — Creativity Connects
To support the design, creation, and dissemination of art works that will reflect the stories of day laborers, a partnership with Street Level Health Project.

International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (aka Leonardo/ISAST)
$20,000 Oakland, CA
Art Works — Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support residencies for artists and scientists.

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Kitka, Inc. (aka Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble)
$15,000 Oakland, CA
Art Works — Music
To support Evening Star, a project based on Eastern European folk and spiritual traditions.

Purple Silk Music Education Foundation, Inc. (aka Purple Silk Music Education Foundation)
$20,000 Oakland, CA
Art Works — Arts Education
To support a year-long intensive music instruction program for youth.